Biospecimen Shared Resource ? Project Summary The Biospecimen Shared Resource (BSR), led by Andrew K. Godwin, PhD (Director, BSR; Deputy Director, KUCC, and D3ET member) and by Rashna Madan, MBBS, FCAP, FASCP (Assistant Director, BSR) plays a vital role in the University of Kansas Cancer Center (KUCC) by its ethical collection, storage, annotation, and distribution of high quality biospecimens, such as fresh/fresh-frozen tumor tissues of varying histology and bodily fluids (blood, saliva, urine, ascites fluids) which are essential to support translational research and investigator-initiated studies. The BSR also provides expert histopathology support and combines the expertise of pathologists, translational researchers, and technical personnel to produce a comprehensive and focused approach to support the research activities at KUCC. The BSR is overseen by an internal advisory board (IAB) and the director and assistant director, Godwin and Madan, respectively. Colleen Reilly (Project Manager) provides the day-to-day staff supervision and Cassaundra Shipman (Program Development Manager) oversight of participant consenting. The BSR is staffed by four research coordinators who identify participants and administer informed consent, one clinical laboratory supervisor, two lab technicians who handle the processing and banking of biospecimens, one histotechnologist who performs advanced histology services, including histology support for therapeutic clinical trials, and one cancer registrar who performs searches for samples to match user requests and enters clinical information not available electronically into our developing Curated Cancer Clinical Outcomes Database (C3OD). Additionally tissue biospecimen collection is facilitated by pathology assistants, residents and fellows at the KU Hospital and the Indian Creek Campus as part of the KU Health System's commitment to the Cancer Center's BSR. The BSR is fully equipped for biospecimen collection, processing, and distribution, and thus, the BSR adheres to the OSHA laboratory standards for handling cryogens, ISBER Best Practice for Repositories, and NCI Best Practices for Biospecimen Resources, and has developed Standard Operating Procedures to govern each of these processes. The collection, processing, and distribution of samples by the BSR staff has grown substantially over the past four years (2012-2015) and now includes collections of pediatric sarcomas from ICC and underserved populations from the satellite biospecimen bank at Truman Medical Center, a member of the Midwest Cancer Alliance and the Kansas City safety-net health system. Together, this essential KUCC shared resource, houses over 9,000 tissues and more than 20,000 blood samples (including either single or repeat draws from individuals diagnosed with cancer, benign disease, or no evidence of cancer) from >17,000 participants (enrolled by the end of 2015) and distributed nearly 16,000 specimen aliquots since 2012. In CY15 (the reporting year), the BSR services were used by 74 investigators, 44 who were KUCC members, an increase of nearly 2-fold during the funding period.